Two hour parking in 1951


As a graphic designer, and someone who has always had a silly sense of humor, I've always enjoyed the concept of a sign that says, "Two hour parking". It means, of course, that you can only park for two hours at the most, but I've always found it funny to imagine that someone would look at their watch and worry that they had only been parked there for an hour-and-a-half, or fifteen minutes, or whatever.

I was enjoying the old photos on the Duke University site ROAD (Resource of Outdoor Advertising Descriptions) today and this beauty caught my eye. If you know the make and model, let me know and I'll update this post. The license plate says Virginia, so that's all I know, so if you can identify the exact location, that would be wonderful, too, and I'll update the post.

Anyway, the car is parked next to a sign that says "Two hour parking". Here, I'll zoom in on it for you:


I just noticed that it also says "8 am to 6 pm". I mean, make up your mind - am I being told to park for two hours, or to park from 8 am to 6 pm? This makes no sense to me, so I'll just ignore the sign.

And maybe that's why so many people don't pay attention to signs, but I really don't know. I've never seen a sign that says "Fine for parking", but I'm inclined that many people are confused by the short wording of signs, which for lack of space would have sentences that say, "You can only park your car here for a maximum of two hours between 8 am and 6 pm. Of course, there's not enough room on the sign to say that if you want the lettering to be big enough for people to see. Such is the nature of graphic design.

Speaking for myself, I rarely parked in front of any sign that might indicate no parking. Many of the signs in Los Angeles, where I spent my twenties, were extremely complicated and I suppose if I'd taken the time to read them carefully I would have known when to park, and for how long, maybe alternate Thursdays or whatever, but I would just move on. Maybe that's what they were hoping I would do?

I've known people who've gotten a lot of parking tickets, and I understand that they feel that it's a conspiracy by the city to generate revenue. I try to be sympathetic to these people, but really, didn't they learn how to read in grade school? Yeah, that's kinda harsh, maybe they were in a hurry, and maybe these kinds of signs really are confusing to them. I've been a passenger in a car and have told the driver that we can't leave yet as the sign says "Two hour parking" so we have to sit here for another twenty minutes before we can leave.

They might say, "Are you being funny?" to which I would need to reply, "Apparently not."

Images from the Duke University Libraries Digital Collection. 




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